Bullets ride Sobey's hot hand to win over Tasmania

Nathan Sobey has peeled off a game-high 28 points as the Brisbane Bullets survived a late Tasmania JackJumpers fightback to continue their resurgence with a tense 90-87 win.

Despite being without star centre Aron Baynes (suspended) and point guard Shannon Scott (hamstring), the Bullets soared to a second straight victory on Sunday at Nissan Arena.

It gives Brisbane two wins this weekend after a stirring win in Perth against the struggling Wildcats on Friday night to snap a four-game losing streak.

The result levelled Brisbane's current season record at 4-4 after five rounds with Baynes now set to return from his suspension on Thursday at home to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

But it didn't come easily as fourth-quarter specialists Tasmania trimmed a seven-point deficit back to a single point when Majok Deng drove to the rack with 34 seconds remaining.

The two sides traded blows in the dying stages and the JackJumpers almost sent the game to overtime when they pinched Sam McDaniel's inbounds pass on the final play.

Jack McVeigh got a hand in to force the turnover and Tasmania found Jordon Crawford, but his decent look at an attempted game-leveller rimmed out.

The JackJumpers, who trailed by seven at three quarter-time, kept alive their record of winning every fourth term this season, but it wasn't enough.

Brisbane captain Sobey led from the front as defensive specialist Mitch Norton limited Tasmania's import Crawford (16 points) relatively quiet until the final period.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brisbanebullets</a> go 2-0 in Round 5 ?<br><br>Nathan Sobey took over the game late, earning himself Foot Locker Player of the Game honours ? <a href="https://t.co/7sQWZdvsAF">pic.twitter.com/7sQWZdvsAF</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1718524568191828335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tyrrell Harrison and Josh Bannan (10 points each) were important for the Bullets, while Chris Smith (11) and Isaac White (10) gave solid contributions off the bench.

It was Sam McDaniel who had as significant an impact as anybody though. After locking down Bryce Cotton on Friday, he took on former JackJumpers teammate Milton Doyle and limited him to seven points on 3-of-10 shooting.

"It was a big weekend for us," Bullets coach Justin Schueller said.

"In these last two games, we're really starting to understand how consistent we actually can be with our play.

"That's a hell of a ball club at the other end and with the challenges that we kept facing, for the result to be there and (for us to) continue to find our habits and our way was really pleasing."

The gut-wrenching loss ended a horror Round 5 for the JackJumpers, who lost at home to Melbourne United before going down to the Bullets.

It left them with a 4-4 record after a strong 4-2 start to the season.

McVeigh (18 points) and Deng (17) gave strong offensive contributions for Tasmania, who lost Marcus Lee for the final few minutes after the starting centre fouled out.

Sean Macdonald chimed in with 12 points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting with the JackJumpers now having until Saturday to face the Bullets again in Launceston. Brisbane will play the Phoenix first on Thursday with Baynes back in the line-up.

A disappointed Roth said he wasn't satisfied with any of his players' performances and gave a simple assessment of the team's overall display.

"Our defence is not good enough. It's not at a championship level, it's not at a top-four level," he said.

"As I've told these guys from day one, if it doesn't get up in those categories of being better and defending the three-point line and keeping guys off the foul line, you're just in for a long season.

"It's just a reality of the league and it's too hard to win games, especially on the road, unless your defence can travel with you everywhere you go."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 5

BRISBANE BULLETS 90 (Sobey 28, Smith 11, Bannan 10, Harrison 10, White 10)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 87 (McVeigh 18, Deng 17, Crawford 16)

BOX SCORE